Weblinks - Spring 2018

The Roberta Bondar Foundation offers Canadians a variety of nature-based activities designed to teach them to be stewards of the Earth. Programs accessed on the website also include contests to encourage students to capture the planet's beauty through photography. Dr. Bondar, a gifted photographer, a noted scientist and Canada's first female astronaut, founded the charity in 2009, inspired by the perspective of Earth she witnessed as a researcher on the Discovery space mission in 1992.

In October, Egale Canada launched a new survey monitoring attitudes towards homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in Canadian schools. In 2012, the organization released Every Class in Every School, an initial report undertaken with academic partners from the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba. The statistics on incidents of harassment and bullying of LGBTQ students across the country published in this study prompted Egale Canada to launch the Safer and Accepting Schools program nationally in order to improve attitudes among students towards their LGBTQ peers. Researchers now hope to track progress of these programs and determine what work still needs to be done.

Egale Canada works to increase awareness and acceptance of LGBTQI2S people in Canada.

A new set of learning resources is being developed for Ontario public school students to foster their appreciation for Canadian literature. In July, the Ontario Ministry of Culture, Recreation and Sport announced a three-year pilot that will provide $250,000 annually to Ontario publishers for the development of curriculum-based lesson plans supporting notable Canadian novels, plays or poetry. Minister Eleanor McMahon said that the grade-specific learning materials are being developed in consultation with education experts and the first set will be released in September 2018.

This project is part of the Ministry of Culture, Recreation and Sport's Ontario Culture Strategy, launched in July 2016 funded through the Ontario Media Development Corporation.